Converting people to a particular faith is not the job of a military chaplain.
The U.S. military continues to have problems understanding the concept of religious liberty.
About two years ago, Americans United exposed examples of preference toward evangelical Christianity at the U.S. Air Force Academy. More recently, AU attorneys filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Wiccans who want their symbol recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Now The Washington Post has reported that a former Army officer who left a Christian denomination to become a Wiccan has been stripped of his status as a chaplain.
Don Larsen’s story makes for difficult reading because it’s so obviously a case of religious discrimination. Larsen was serving as a chaplain in Iraq, representing a Pentecostal denomination, until about a year ago. Various events led him to reevaluate his faith and embrace Wicca. But when Larsen applied for recognition as a Wiccan chaplain, he was not only denied, he was shipped out of Iraq and summarily dismissed from the chaplains’ corps – despite his flawless service record.
It isn’t hard to find people who believe Larsen was railroaded.
“I could go on and on about how well he preached, the care he gave,” said Chaplain Kevin L. McGhee, Larsen’s superior at Camp Anaconda, a large base about 50 miles north of Baghdad. “What happened to Chaplain Larsen – to be honest, I think it’s political. A lot of people think Wiccans are un-American, because they are ignorant about what Wiccans do.”
The Post’s long report on Larsen’s plight contains an interesting nugget of information: As a Pentecostal chaplain, Larsen was expected to report back to his superiors at the Full Gospel Churches denomination on the number of souls he had saved – in other words, the number of soldiers he had converted to his religion.
Converting people to a particular faith is not the job of a military chaplain. Chaplains are expected to accommodate a broad variety of faiths. If a chaplain does not feel comfortable with a soldier’s religious choice, he helps meet that soldier’s needs in other ways.
It would seem that Larsen was expected by his denomination to proselytize and win converts to his version of Christianity on the taxpayer’s dime. He never got in trouble for that, but switching denominations led to his removal from the chaplaincy.
The Army made a mistake. The military has no Wiccan chaplains, and recognizing Larsen would have been an important nod toward religious pluralism, a way to increase diversity in the chaplains’ ranks. No one knows how many Wiccans serve in the Army, but some estimates put the number as high as 4,000. If true, this means they rival the number of Jews, Muslims and Buddhists in the Army – yet all of those faiths are served by chaplains.
Larsen is back home now, serving in the Army National Guard in Idaho. It’s a shame because he’d rather be in Iraq doing what he does best: meeting the spiritual needs of soldiers in a difficult environment.
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